Province

Alberta is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories (NWT) to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south. It is one of the only two landlocked provinces in Canada (Saskatchewan being the other). The eastern part of the province is occupied by the Great Plains, while the western part borders the Rocky Mountains. The province has a predominantly continental climate but experiences quick temperature changes due to air aridity. Seasonal temperature swings are less pronounced in western Alberta due to occasional chinook winds.

Alberta is the 4th largest province by area at 661,848 km² (255,541 sq mi), and the 4th most populous, being home to 4,262,635 people. Alberta’s capital is Edmonton, while Calgary is its largest city. The two are Alberta’s largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and both exceed one million people. More than half of Albertans live in either Edmonton or Calgary, which contributes to continuing the rivalry between the two cities. English is the official language of the province. In 2016, 76.0% of Albertans were anglophone, 1.8% were francophone and 22.2% were allophone. 

Source: Wikipedia

Ontario is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. Located in Central Canada, it is Canada’s most populous province, with 38.3 percent of the country’s population, and is the second-largest province by total area (after Quebec). Ontario is Canada’s fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavutare included. It is home to the nation’s capital city, Ottawa, and the nation’s most populous city, Toronto, which is also Ontario’s provincial capital.

Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, and Quebec to the east and northeast, and to the south by the U.S. states of (from west to east) Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Almost all of Ontario’s 2,700 km (1,678 mi) border with the United States follows inland waterways: from the westerly Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence River drainage system. These include Rainy River, Pigeon River, Lake Superior, St. Marys River, Lake Huron, St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, Detroit River, Lake Erie, Niagara River, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, to the Quebec boundary just east of Cornwall. There is only about 1 km (0.6 mi) of land border, made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border.

Ontario is sometimes divided into two geographic regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontario’s population and arable land is in the south. In contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation.

Source: Wikipedia

Manitoba is a province of Canada at the longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada’s fifth-most populous province, with a population of 1,342,153 as of 2021, of widely varied landscape, from arctic tundra and the Hudson Bay coastline in the north to dense boreal forest, large freshwater lakes, and prairie grassland in the central and southern regions.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years. In the early 17th century, British and French fur tradersbegan arriving in the area and establishing settlements. The Kingdom of England secured control of the region in 1673 and created a territory named Rupert’s Land, which was placed under the administration of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Rupert’s Land, which included all of present-day Manitoba, grew and evolved from 1673 until 1869 with significant settlements of Indigenous and Métis people in the Red River Colony. In 1869, negotiations with the Government of Canada for the creation of the province of Manitoba commenced. During the negotiations, several factors led to an armed uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada, a conflict known as the Red River Rebellion. The resolution of the conflict and further negotiations led to Manitoba becoming the fifth province to join Canadian Confederation, when the Parliament of Canada passed the Manitoba Act on July 15, 1870.

Manitoba’s capital and largest city is Winnipeg, the seventh most populous municipality in Canada. Winnipeg is the seat of government, home to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and the Provincial Court. Four of the province’s five universities, all four of its professional sports teams, and most of its cultural activities (including Festival du Voyageur and Folklorama) are located in Winnipeg. The city has train and bus stations and an international airport; a Canadian Forces base, CFB Winnipeg, operates from the airport and is the regional headquarters of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Source: Wikipedia

Quebec  is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the largest province by area and the second-largest by population. Much of the population lives in urban areas along the St. Lawrence River, between the most populous city, Montreal, and the provincial capital, Quebec City. Quebec is the home of the Québécoisnation. Located in Central Canada, the province shares land borders with Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast, and a coastal border with Nunavut; in the south it borders Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York in the United States.

Quebec’s official language is French; Québécois French is the local variety. The economy of Quebec is mainly supported by its large service sector and varied industrial sector. For exports, it leans on these key industries: aeronautics, hydroelectricity, mining, pharmaceuticals, aluminum and paper. Quebec is well known for producing maple syrup, for its comedy, and for making hockey one of the most popular sports in Canada. It is also renowned for its culture; the province produces literature, music, films, TV shows, festivals, folklore, and more.

Source: Wikipedia

New Brunswick is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both French and English as its official languages.

New Brunswick is bordered by Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to the west. New Brunswick is about 83% forested and its northern half is occupied by the Appalachians. The province’s climate is continental with snowy winters and temperate summers.

New Brunswick has a surface area of 72,908 km² (28,150 sq mi) and 775,610 inhabitants (2021). Atypically for Canada, only about half of the population lives in urban areas. New Brunswick’s largest cities are Moncton and Saint John, while its capital is Fredericton.

Source: Wikipedia

Prince Edward Island (abbreviated as PEI) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: “Garden of the Gulf”, “Birthplace of Confederation” and “Cradle of Confederation”. Its capital and largest city is Charlottetown. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces.

According to Statistics Canada, the province of Prince Edward Island had 158,717 residents in 2019. The backbone of the island economy is farming; it produces 25% of Canada’s potatoes. Other important industries include the fisheries, tourism, aerospace, bio-science, IT, and renewable energy. As Prince Edward Island is one of Canada’s older settlements, its population still reflects some of the earliest settlers, with Canadien, Scottish, Irish, and English surnames being dominant.

Prince Edward Island is located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Halifax and 600 kilometres (370 miles) east of Quebec City, and has a land area of 5,686.03 km² (2,195.39 sq mi). The main island is 5,620 km² (2,170 sq mi) in size.^[11] It is the 104th-largest island in the world and Canada’s 23rd-largest island.

Source: Wikipedia

Saskatchewan is a prairie and boreal province in Western Canada, the middle of the three prairie provinces. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota. Saskatchewan, along with Alberta make up the only landlocked provinces of Canada. As of Q1 2020, Saskatchewan’s population was estimated at 1,181,987 Nearly 10% of Saskatchewan’s total area of 651,900 square kilometres (251,700 sq mi) is fresh water, which is composed mostly of rivers, reservoirs, and the province’s 100,000 lakes. The absence of nearby moderating bodies of water render severe winters throughout the province, as a result of Saskatchewan’s continental climate. Southern areas have very warm or hot summers. In winter, temperatures below −45 °C (−49 °F) are possible even in the south during extreme cold snaps.

Residents primarily live in the southern prairie half of the province, while the northern boreal half is mostly forested and sparsely populated. Of the total population, roughly half live in the province’s largest city Saskatoon or the provincial capital Regina. Other notable cities include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, North Battleford, Melfort, and the border city Lloydminster (partially within Alberta). English is the primary language of the province, with 82.4% of Saskatchewanians speaking English as their first language.

Source: Wikipedia

British Columbia  is the westernmost province of Canada. Situated between the Pacific Ocean and the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, replete with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, forests, lakes, mountains, inland deserts and grassy plains. It borders the Canadian province of Alberta to the east and the Canadian territory of Yukon to the north. With an estimated population of 5.2 million as of 2021, it is Canada’s third-most populous province. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria and its largest city is Vancouver. Vancouver is the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada; the 2021 census recorded 2,642,825 people in Metro Vancouver. The majority of the population resides in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and Okanagan regions.

First Nations, the first inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Such groups include the Coast Salish, Tsilhqotʼin, and Haida peoples, among many others. One of the earliest British settlements in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, which gave rise to the city of Victoria, the first capital of the Colony of Vancouver Island. The Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) was subsequently founded on the mainland by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Although Governor James Douglas selected Fort Langley as the provisional capital of the fledgling colony, Moody established a new capital north of the Fraser River the following year, named New Westminster by Queen Victoria. In 1866, the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia unified, inheriting the mainland colony’s name and Victoria as the united colony’s capital. In 1871, British Columbia entered Confederation as the sixth province of Canada via the British Columbia Terms of Union.

British Columbia is a diverse and cosmopolitan province, drawing on a plethora of cultural influences from its British, European, and Asian diasporas, as well as the local Indigenous population. Though the province’s ethnic majority originates from the British Isles, many British Columbians also trace their roots back to continental Europe, China, and South Asia.  Indigenous Canadians make up about 5 percent of the province’s total population. Christianity is the most subscribed religion, although the amount of British Columbians who claim no religious affiliation whatsoever is high by Canadian standards. English is the common language of the province, although Punjabi, Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese also have a large presence in the Metro Vancouver region. The Franco-Columbian community is an officially recognized linguistic minority, and around 72,000 British Columbians claim French as their mother tongue. British Columbia is home to at least 34 distinct Indigenous languages.

Source: Wikipedia

Newfoundland and Labrador sometimes abbreviated as NL is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country’s Atlantic region. It is composed of the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador to the northwest, with a combined area of 405,212 square kilometres (156,500 sq mi). In 2021, the province’s population was estimated at 521,758. About 94% of the province’s population lives on the island of Newfoundland (and its neighbouring smaller islands), of whom more than half live on the Avalon Peninsula.

The province is Canada’s most linguistically homogeneous, with 97.0% of residents reporting English (Newfoundland English) as their mother tongue in the 2016 census. Historically, Newfoundland was also home to the unique dialects of Newfoundland French and Newfoundland Irish, as well as the extinct Beothuk language. In Labrador, the indigenous languages Innu-aimun and Inuktitut are also spoken.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital and largest city, St. John’s, is Canada’s 20th-largest census metropolitan area and is home to almost 40 per cent of the province’s population. St. John’s is the seat of government, home to the House of Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador and to the highest court in the jurisdiction, the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal.

Source: Wikipedia

Nova Scotia is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for “New Scotland”. Most of the population are native English-speakers. The province’s population reached 1 million in December 2021.

With a population of 969,383 as of 2021, it is the most populous of Canada’s Atlantic provinces. It is the country’s second-most densely populated province and second-smallest province by area, both after Prince Edward Island. Its area of 55,284 square kilometres (21,345 sq mi) includes Cape Breton Island and 3,800 other coastal islands. The peninsula that makes up Nova Scotia’s mainland is connected to the rest of North America by the Isthmus of Chignecto, on which the province’s land border with New Brunswick is located. The province borders the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, and is separated from Prince Edward Island and the island of Newfoundland by the Northumberland and Cabot straits, respectively.

Nova Scotia’s capital and largest city is Halifax, which today is home to about 45 percent of the province’s population. Halifax is the thirteenth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada, the largest city in Atlantic Canada, and Canada’s second-largest coastal city after Vancouver.

Source: Wikipedia